71 people killed in plane crash near Moscow

71 people lost their lives on Sunday after a Russian passenger plane crashed soon after it took off from an airport near Russia’s capital, Moscow.

The plane was an Antonov An-148 from Saratov airlines. Fragments of the regional jet were found in the Ramenskoye area, about 40 kilometers away from the airport. All the victims were on board, according to the country’s transportation minister. There were no on the ground casualties, since the plane crashed in an area with no buildings, as the footages on state television showed.

71 passengers died in plane crash in Russia. Image credit: Los Angeles Times

No one survived the crash

The airplane disappeared from radar screen just minutes after it departed from the Domodedovo Airport en route to Orsk, which is a city located about 1000 miles away from Moscow, in the southeast

According to the transport ministry, Maxim Sokolov, all the people on the plane died. He didn’t specify the death toll. However, the aircraft had 65 passengers on board alongside a crew of 6 people.

“Judging by everything, no one has survived this crash”, said Minister Maxim Sokolov.

Debris and human remains were found across a kilometer across the place where the crash took place. Currently, the Russian investigative committee is investigating all possible causes. The crashed might have been produced by the weather conditions, a crew error of a technical malfunction

Because of this disastrous event, Vladimir Putin postponed a planned trip to Sochi. He was about to meet Mahmoud Abbas, Palestine’s leader, on Monday at the Black Sea Resort. Now, Abbas will go to Moscow to meet the Russian president later on Monday.

It was informed that the plane took off at 2:21 p.m. and reached an altitude of 6,400 feet before disappearing from the radars. Emergency responders are working at the site of the crash right now.

No survivors after Russian plane crashed soon after it took off. Image credit. LOS Angeles times

Poor supervision might have been the cause

The An-148 aircraft was developed by Ukraine’s Antonov company earlier this century and manufactured by this country and Russia. That plane was ordered by Rossiya Airlines, a subsidiary of Aeroflot. It was operative since 2010, though broken during two years- from 2015 to 2017 – because of a shortage of parts. It was reported that the plane started flying again in February 2017 for Saratov Airlines.

Inadequate supervision and lack of equipment have increased in the Russian civil aviation since the collapse of the Soviet block in 1991, though apparently safety records have improved recently.

Other significant plane accidents have involved Russian planes in recent years. In October 2015, 224 people died when an onboard bomb destroyed a Metrojet airliner when it had just taken off from Egypt’s Sharm al-Sheikh resort. In March 2016, a Boeing 737-800 flown by FlyDubai crashed as it landed at Rostov-on-Don, killing all 62 people aboard.

As well, on December 2016, a Tu-154, which was operated by the Russian Defense Ministry on its way to Syria, crashed into the black sea just minutes after it took off from Sochi. All the 92 passengers died.